Sharing is caring, supes

Responding to complaints regarding the management of the Community Development Services Department, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously in February to split the department in two, effective May 13. Thus were born two new departments: Planning and Building, and Economic Development and Natural Resources.

The supervisors then voted 3-2 in March to appoint current CDS director and complaint magnet Kirk Girard as director of economic development and natural resources, where he will retain his old level of pay while seeing his duties halved.

As finding someone else to lead economic development and natural resources would have cost $982 less a month, this was enough to raise eyebrows.

And now, come Monday, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors plans to consider the appointment for the newly formed position of director of planning and building.

In closed session. After months of a hiring process cloaked in secrecy.

Now, we can surmise that there may have been the need for discretion earlier in the job hunt, while the supervisors were dealing with a number of applicants, a number they have steadfastly refused to disclose.

But now that they have presumably narrowed their search to what very well could be a smaller number of finalists, maybe the public deserves to see a few résumés before the supervisors hand their mystery candidate a shiny, new $9,024-a-month job?

In an age where most governments at least mouth praise of transparency, Humboldt County's seems to be clinging to a culture of opacity. Unnecessary secrecy only feeds the perception that the public is being shut out of major decisions.

Given the all-too-prickly nature of local politics, it's unwise to continue feeding the public such fare.

The sooner Humboldt County officials can release more information about the business they conduct in the name of the public, the better.